You may be aware our high school senior students are in a new program to help get them ready for college. They have restructured living arrangements that are similar to what they’ll find in the dorms.

Our Houseparents are working to help them develop a sense of independence so they’ll be able to take care of their own cooking, shopping, budgeting and employment after graduation. Recently, the high school girls in Hogebach Home got busy canning tomatoes!

Last weekend, the girls decided it would be a fun activity to learn. They got the hang of washing the tomatoes, blanching them so as to be able to remove the skin, and the value of an apron as tomato juice was all over the place. They discussed sterilizing jars, the different width of jar mouths and the fact that sealing lids needed to be pretreated to ensure a good seal. They measured, mixed and taste-tested salsa to make sure it was good.

As they progressed filling the jars, they discussed the importance of hot jars for hot liquids and how full to fill the jars and why it was important to wipe clean the jars’ necks so as to ensure a good seal.

Proud of their success, they decided to take some home to show off to family and friends and also send a Care Box with chips and homemade salsa to a recent graduate.

They feel they’ll have enough to last through the winter since they were able to make 10 quarts and 7 pints. They plan to continue canning plain tomatoes to be used in home cooking throughout the year.

In addition to canning, the girls and their houseparents also discussed the value of having a garden which could provide a lot of food for a family to use throughout the winter.

After enjoying the chance to learn and new skill and realize they were able to provide for future meals, the Hogebach girls were treated to a swim party and picnic at American Creek. They had fun on the water and enjoyed a meal featuring kabobs provided by Maija, one of our high school staff.

The Sheehy Home recently sponsored a BBQ meal for the Chamberlain High football team the evening before their first game.

About 30 young men- along with their coaches- descended upon Sheehy Home. Mike, one of the Sheehy houseparents, said everyone came hungry and had a good time.

This supper is a tradition St. Joseph’s has offered for several years to help the team get to know each other better and show St. Joseph’s support for an athletic program our students are getting involved in. We have four or five young men on the team this year.

Since the 8th graders, who are now freshman, had an undefeated season last year, the coach is giving a lot of the younger players a chance to play, which will help in the years to come. The BBQ dinner paid off as Chamberlain ran away with the game, 70-0. That’s right… 70-0!

Crow Creek, a local reservation public school, had some good players but were overmatched by not having a lot of subs.

The Cubs have some tough teams on the schedule, so the shoe may be on the other foot in the not too distant future. We look forward to watching them play again!

As you may know, St. Joseph’s is building a new two story facility which will house an infirmary on the bottom floor and the offices of our Family Service Counselors who meet with their designated students each week on the second.

The building will be attached to the current school wing. The photo shows how deep they’ve gone to put in a basement and pipe lines for various wires to ensure the building will be habitable.

We’ll be blessing the ground for the new facility on the morning of our up-coming powwow. We’ve had some fun watching the progress, even though our power has been accidentally cut off four times!

A sad note now. You probably have heard of the two religious Sisters who were brutally killed in Mississippi recently. Sr. Paula Murill, SCN and Sr. Margaret Held, OSF had served in a ministry of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, who also sponsor St. Joseph’s, in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

The Sisters served as nurses with Sacred Heart Southern Missions out of Walls, Mississippi and helped provide in-home health care. After becoming nurse practitioners, they moved on to serve at a clinic in Mound Bayou, Mississippi and then on to Durant, Mississippi to work with the poor at a clinic there.

We ask you keep them in your prayers as well as their religious communities and their families as we all struggle to deal with this sudden and tragic loss.

The school year is off to a flying start now that everyone is back. The high school students began their classes on Wednesday, but students going out for sports have been on campus for a week or so practicing.

The high school girls volleyball has their first away game Saturday, football plays in Chamberlain tonight against Crow Creek, and the golf team has had several matches already with St. Joseph’s own, Danny, capturing third (behind another Chamberlain golfer coming in second) at a meet in the Rapid City area.

The younger students here at St. Joseph’s have had the chance to sign up for cross country, girls volleyball and 7th & 8th grade football. There will also be youth football for grades 4th through 6th that will include players from the Chamberlain area.

The big event on campus this week has been the 5th graders taking part in the week-long STARBASE program. STARBASE is a program that combines science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with exciting experiments and hands-on activities to motivate students to explore these subjects as they continue their education.

Throughout the week, there has been a variety of fun activities: crafting a container to protect an egg being dropped from a certain height; designing and shooting straw rockets; combining various ingredients and chemicals to produce elephant toothpaste and seeing how high a container can reach in a tube.

Yesterday, students used a computer program to code their robots’ movements as they traveled around the classroom. Each group of two or three worked together to see who’s robot could travel through the courses the quickest. This session was definitely a class favorite!

This Saturday, St. Joseph’s will be hosting the Chamberlain Youth Triathlon. Participants will swim a certain number of laps in our pool, bike for a certain distance and end with a run.

With St. Joseph’s annual powwow just around the corner, there will also be time this weekend for various age groups to get some powwow dance practice in with our drum group. They are all busy practicing and preparing their dances for the powwow festivities on September 17!

I hope you might be able to attend this year’s powwow and see the results of their practices firsthand. For more information, visit www.stjo.org/powwow or call 800-584-9200.

As the last days of summer vacation pass by, I hope this has been a wonderful summer for you and yours. We are grateful to those of you who helped provide school supplies for our students and took the time to send them some words of encouragement as our school year began.

The countdown to the start of the new school year is in single digits, as our students arrive on campus this Sunday!

All-Staff Orientation is also coming to a close. We began with a prayer service on Tuesday and had a picnic Wednesday evening. Various groups have been busy going over policy and expectations. Teachers and Houseparents have been preparing their classrooms and homes for the students’ arrival!

This year, God has blessed us with a good group of newcomers whom we welcome to the ministry here at St. Joseph’s, dedicated to meeting the needs of our students ‘heart, mind, body and soul.’ While we welcome them aboard, we will miss the veterans who are no longer with us. We ask the Great Spirit’s blessings upon them all! (more…)

As the new school year quickly approaches, St. Joseph’s wanted to take a moment to look back at the past school year.

Hi! My name is Cathy. I am a houseparent in the William Home, one of St. Joseph’s 4th-6th grade girls homes.

Adventure and Way to Go!!are always a couple of the themes interwoven into the William Home’s experiences.

Adventure

Adventure is defined as ‘an unusual and exciting experience or activity, especially the exploration of unknown territory.’ It also means taking chances.

Adventure walks were one of our students’ favorite things to do last year! Normally, their favorite activity was the playground, but sometimes an adventure/mystery walk would be offered.

Initially, there were complaints and grumblings because they would want to know exactly where they were going… but we would tell them that knowing doesn’t fit the definition of adventure or mystery!

Now, the girls would not hesitate to say ‘YES’ because they know the walk will result in a fun activity! Wondering and guessing where our destination was always added to the excitement.

To be honest, I usually do not have a clue as to where we are headed, but by starting out in any given direction, I know we will find our destination along the way. It might be a new hill to roll down solo or in tandem, or a really neat place to play hide and seek!

Each time is always a different and fun adventure.

On Valentine’s Day, a few of the girls said ‘YES’ to a mystery walk. This particular stroll definitely became an adventure with a capital A!

As some of you may know, this year has been proclaimed a Holy Year of Mercy by Pope Francis. Part of the celebration calls for people to visit the Cathedral and pass through the Holy Door as part of a pilgrimage. I joined parishioners from St. James Catholic Church in Chamberlain and St. Margaret Catholic Church in Kimball to visit the Cathedral of St. Joseph’s in Sioux Falls.

To meet the requirements for the plenary indulgence, the trip was geared to have the opportunity for Confession, to offer prayer for Pope Francis’ intentions and to receive the Eucharist by joining in the noon Mass. After the Mass, we were given a guided tour of the Cathedral and the renovations that were done in the past few years. The group joined together at a local Perkins for lunch before heading home. We enjoyed sharing reflections of what had impressed people the most about the experience and the tour.

It has been an exciting few days at St. Joseph’s Indian School! On Monday, the city of Chamberlain put on a wonderful fireworks display and on Wednesday, a storm with fierce winds and rain moved through town. Luckily, there was not much damage with the storm, other than a few tree branches here and there.

The students in the Summer Break Home all headed home this week. Prior to their departure, they made a trip to Omaha, Nebraska. They seemed to have enjoyed themselves! They swam in a wave pool, rode a roller coaster, raced go-carts, visited an aquarium and made a trip to the zoo to see

A picnic in the park was a cherry on top of the Summer Break Home’s trip to the zoo!

orangutans, polar bears, gorillas and elephants—certainly animals that are not normally seen on the plains of South Dakota! (more…)

Things have slowed down quite a bit on campus. The Rising Eagle Day Camp culminated and the free lunch program for the community has also came to an end to give our staff a short break before the students return to campus on August 14.

Several students are staying on campus in our Summer Break Home. They recently spent a few days in Omaha, Nebraska. I will make sure to give a report on what they saw and did in my blog next week.

Summer Camp participants enjoyed the slip-n-slide waterslide!

The most popular activity at this year’s summer camp was a slip-n-slide ‘waterslide’! A tarp was placed on a hill with a hose at the top, allowing the kids to slip and slide all the way to the bottom of the hill! Everyone enjoyed it immensely.

About a week or so ago, the Chamberlain Cubs High School varsity basketball team sponsored a clinic to help future NBA prospects perfect their game. Several of the young men from the Break Home took advantage of the opportunity, going to the gym each morning to hone their skills. They seemed to have a lot of fun and we’ll see if the extra training bears fruit when the basketball season opens in November.